According to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Germany can become a global center for cancer research based on artificial intelligence (AI) in the future. The uniform database and the wealth of information from health insurance companies do not exist in this form in other European countries or in the USA – in connection with the possibilities of electronic patient records, he sees great international potential, said Lauterbach at the German Cancer Research Center DKFZ in Heidelberg.
Germany has so far not used its strengths in the areas of AI and cancer research enough. Using “confidential computing” – a concept for the secure use of data – it should also be possible in the future to bring together high data protection standards and AI development.
DKFZ board chairman Michael Baumann emphasized, “Artificial intelligence is a revolution, it is a breakthrough that we can use systematically.” On the one hand, AI offers the opportunity to adapt the diagnostics individually to a patient, and on the other hand, through the possibilities of data analysis, you can learn an enormous amount about how cancer develops. “And from this we can draw conclusions about how we can prevent cancer,” he said.
After the DKFZ, Lauterbach visits the European Molecular Biology Laboratory EMBL.
